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Barrington firm hopes to increase its portfolio by 10 aircraft a year
Fly Leasing, the international aircraft leasing firm headed by Colm Barrington, probably won't need to raise any additional funds this year to finance its growth plans.
Mr Barrington, who is also chairman of Aer Lingus, told the Irish Independent that Fly Leasing's intention is to increase its portfolio by about 10 aircraft a year.
That's likely to bring the total number of aircraft on its books to about 120 this year.
Headquartered in Dublin, Fly Leasing has just renewed what Mr Barrington described as a shelf document with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States that would enable the company to raise as much as $500m (€375m) from investors.
But Mr Barrington said Fly Leasing, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is sufficiently funded to see out its plans for 2013.
The company, which acquires aircraft through the secondary market and via sale and leaseback by airlines, secured a $250m (€187m) acquisition facility in November, backed by lenders including Deutsche Bank, Citigroup Global Markets and BNP Paribas.
Earlier this month the firm received additional funding after private equity firm Onex acquired a 50pc interest in BBAM, the world's third largest manager of commercial aircraft.
BBAM acts as manager of Fly Leasing and servicer of the aircraft portfolio under multi-year management and servicing agreements. Fly Leasing had a 15pc stake in BBAM but sold it as part of the Onex deal.
Number
Mr Barrington said it was difficult to precisely predict how many aircraft Fly Leasing would have on its books by the end of the year, but that the intention was to have an annual 10pc net increase.
He added that there remains an appetite among lenders to supply debt financing, but said there's less of it available to buy aircraft directly from manufacturers such as Boeing or Airbus, which Fly Leasing doesn't do.
Demand for aircraft remains strong across all main global regions, including North and South America, Europe and Asia, said Mr Barrington.
Irish Independent
